Washington: Less than three weeks before being sworn in as US President, Barack Obama has secured the highest marks for a President-elect since 1981 for his strong and decisive leadership, a national poll says.

Seventy six per cent of Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Survey released yesterday said that 47-year-old Obama is a strong and decisive leader.

"That's the best number an incoming president has gotten on that dimension since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

"The public's rating of his leadership skills is already as high as George W Bush s was after 9/11 and easily beats the numbers that both Bush and Bill Clinton got at the start of their first terms in office."

Just six in 10 felt that Bush was a strong leader when he took office in 2001. After the attacks of September 11, that number rose to three in four. Sixty seven per cent thought Bill Clinton was a strong leader when he took office in January 1993.

Eight in ten Americans said Obama inspires confidence, can get things done and is tough enough to be president, the three characteristics Americans look for in a leader and the three qualities on which Obama got his highest scores.

Obama, who will be the first black-American US President when he is sworn in on January 20,also got higher marks than Bush did in 2001 on honesty, values, issues, management abilities and compassion.

The 67 per cent of those polled who say they admire Obama - his worst score - is roughly the same as the highest that Bush got on a similar battery of questions just after he took office in 2001.
Source : PTI